06 Jan Robert Browning

Robert Browning is one of the greatest of all Victorian poets. He was born in London in 1812 and began writing poetry at an early age. He’s best remembered for Porphyria’s Lover (1842), My Last Duchess (1842), How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix (1845) and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (1855), plus the popular children’s poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1842). Browning died in 1889 at the age of 77. He’s buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

When he was 33 Browning met Elizabeth Barrett, an aspiring poet, who was six years his elder. Their romance blossomed and the following year they secretly married, against the wishes of her domineering father. Well worth visiting is the Browning Room and memorial window in St Marylebone Parish Church, where Robert and Elizabeth were married. Their story is more-or-less faithfully recounted in the movie The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) starring Norma Shearer and Fredric March. Charles Laughton was at his creepy best as the odious father.